Director: Maurice O’Carroll
Writer: Maurice O’Carroll
Stars: Ciara Berkeley, Chrissie Cronin, Sinead O’Riordan
Synopsis: Set backstage at a major boxing event, a young boxer is plunged into a tumultuous journey from the dressing room to her ring walk in a night of deceit, betrayal, and life-altering decisions.
People forget about the mental toughness it takes to be a boxer. The mind games your opponents and your own brain play out before a bout can take a great fighter down faster than the hardest uppercut. One good punch from an opponent in the ring and it’s all over. Once the heart is out of the fighter, the head goes with her and she’s done for.
That’s where the deftness of writer/director/editor Maurice O’Carroll’s concept of the backstage of a boxing match comes in. Swing Bout isn’t about fighting with fists, it’s about fighting the demons of doubt and anxiety that plague a boxer before and after her match. To combat this mental war, Toni (Ciara Berkeley) has a voice in her headphones, The Guru (John Connors). He guides her with motivational words and builds her confidence in her abilities. Every time she has a verbal sparring match with her opponent, Toni just gets her headphones on and tunes everything out. These snippets of courage give the film a sense of grandeur that one expects from a boxing film even if there’s no boxing in it.
With all of the action taking part backstage, we don’t get to see how the fighters fare in the ring, but the anticipation of the fight is tense enough. In the final training sequence, we are treated to O’Carroll’s editing prowess as he lets the sound of the current bout in the ring play over both Toni and Vicki (Chrissie Cronin) as they punch their trainer’s mitts. O’Carroll cuts between the two fighters as if it’s them in the ring battling each other. They fight hard even though it’s just training. It’s a brilliant scene to include, especially as we will never get a better glimpse at how these two fight.
The problem with Swing Bout overall is that there is too much other than boxing, or mentally preparing for boxing, going on. Interpersonal relationships are important and the set up of Toni and Vicki’s matchup being “fixed” is key, but there are characters introduced who get short shrift or are never put into the main plot and become entirely superfluous. After hearing Mary (Megan Haly) and Bernie’s (Niamh Cremin) fight in the overhead we get an inspired bit of filmmaking where we know Mary has lost the fight, but in the medical bay and when she returns to the dressing room, we only see the back of her head. The extent of her injuries, physically and mentally, are a slow reveal and it adds to the anxiety felt by the remaining fighters waiting for their bouts. Yet, even as she’s given a dramatic turn in her story she is carted off without a resolution. The same goes for the tacked-on story of the troubles of Flann (Baz Black); a down, but not out, fighter who needs just one more chance. His story comes and goes without heavily affecting anything and makes you wonder if he should have been knocked out of the final film altogether.
Many of these side plots prove, while contributing to the pressure put on this one bout between Toni and Vicki, that the issues facing the promoters and the married coach and commentator are simply taking away from the intensity felt in the dressing room. This film cries out for more of Toni and Vicki and of Mary and Bernie. These fighters are the main event, but they get sidelined all too often.
In one of the best performances of the film, Chrissie Cronin as Vicki changes our perception of her entire character. Right up until she is in the final moments of her preparation she’s picking on Toni, threatening her, pacing like a predator stalking her prey. Then, as her father, who is also her coach, wraps her hands in tape, she begins to unravel from that persona to the scared and doubting woman underneath. Cronin handles this shift brilliantly and changes everything we know about Vicki and everything we understand about the merit of a boxer getting a professional shot. She is electric to watch and that added layer of character gives her a platform to shine.
Swing Bout spars with a lot of heady issues facing athletes as well as the darker side of professional sports. It has intriguing central characters and for a boxing film without any filmed boxing, Swing Bout delivers the tension of a championship bout. If it were more focused, Swing Bout would be near brilliance, but as it is, it is just a very good watch and a unique take on the backroom deals of professional boxing.
